The National Education Association approved a plan Monday to aggressively lobby Congress to reform the No Child Left Behind Act. Only three of the 9,000 members argued against the lobbying effort, saying the act was too flawed to reform.

America’s largest education union, the NEA has been critical of the act but this will be “the most organized effort to date.”

Union leaders say the basic intentions of No Child Left Behind — quality schools and skilled teachers — are good. But the government’s “obsessive” focus on testing student skills and punishing failing schools undermines education, said Becky Pringle, a member of the NEA Executive Committee that drafted the new policy. — USA TODAY

No Child Left Behind’s emphasis on standardized testing has changed the way assessment is viewed in the classroom. With NCLB, the primary goal of testing is for school ranking and the only method available is a single, high-stakes achievement test. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, however, offers a very different role for assessment in the classroom, which more closely resembles what is taught in teacher education courses.

Assessment systems, including classroom and large-scale assessment, are organized around the primary purpose of improving student learning. Assessment systems provide useful information about whether students have reached important learning goals and about the progress of each student.They employ practices and methods that are consistent with learning goals, curriculum, instruction, and current knowledge of how students learn. Classroom assessment that is integrated with curriculum and instruction is the primary means of assessment. Educators assess student learning through such methods as structured and informal observations and interviews, projects and tasks, tests, performances and exhibitions, audio and videotapes, experiments, portfolios, and journals. Multiple-choice methods and assessments intended to rank order or compare students, if used, are a limited part of the assessment system. The educational consequences of assessment are evaluated to ensure that the effects are beneficial. — National Center for Fair and Open Testing

Quality classroom assessment allows for a variety of methods to determine student learning. Ideally, instruction is then tailored to meet weaknesses. The teacher, not the state, is best equipped to deliver this type of assessment. Under NCLB, however, the multiple choice tests which should be a limited part of the assessment repertoire becomes the focus of testing and instruction. And the educational benefits of these tests are not being analyzed. In fact, many share concerns that this testing may be detrimental to some populations.